Three more posts and I will be done with the InkJam!
Summary: Your ordinary life as a body snatching monster is rudely interrupted when a pair of strangers try to ruthlessly murder you.
Thoughts: kind of a time-cave type of branching, seems to be quite a few endings. Also felt incomplete (too many paths, not enough time). Vivid descriptions, which sometimes felt bit distraction. Good potential though.
Note: this is a 2D-top-down Horror/Survivor + you need an actual mouse
Summary: You wake up in your house in the middle of a thunderstorm. Your brother is getting a little hungry. Maybe time to make him a snack?
Thoughts: Immersive with the interface and sound effect. But stopped playing after 5min, the zombie noise was too much. Couldn’t stomach it. Zombie stuff is just 
Note: this is a sidescroller with choices
Summary: It’s your final exam at Witch Academy! Will you be able to graduate?
Thoughts: Really adorable and quirky, whether it is the story or the UI. It’s also really short. Unsure whether the choices actually matter (when you actually have some), but who cares when it’s this cute!
Summary: Search for ingredients and conjure treats!
Thoughts: If you have a sweet-tooth like me, it’s honestly a treat. Def one of the best entries I’ve played in that jam. From the UI to the Story and the Gameplay, it’s a delightful 15min.
Summary: The story follows a jazz player as he tries to make sense of a night out gone very, very wrong.
Thoughts: Though it’s an incomplete story (you are warned on the gamepage), there is something intriguing in the premise. Good tension and moodyness.
Summary: You play an acolyte of a dark cult on their last trial to become a member of the cult.
Thoughts: Feels like a dungeon crawler/puzzle. There’s a specific order to interact with the elements, and it’s very easy to die (I did a lot!). The UI and vibes of the game is pristine though!
**Summary:**You are Vega Greene, and you’ve just been reassigned to work at a remote science outpost. When you arrive, you discover that you have an unexpected, but not unwelcome, roommate.
Thoughts: The games describes itself as A lo-fi game to relax to. and definitely has those vibes from the soundtrack. It’s a very cozy game, with some storylets for tasks. +1 for the cat and being able to play with it.
SpeedRead by TremblingInferno
Summary: Focus on the words, or you might fail.
Thoughts: Very short game that will test your reflexes and reading ability (does have speed setting). The game is more interesting for its gameplay than the actual story (pretty minimal).
The Gooooooood Dog Show by owof games, Mattia “RedGlow” Belletti, Insalatuera, QueerginiaWolf
Note: the game is currently only in Italian.
Summary: Test your reflexes for an end-of-the-world cooking challenge!
Thoughts: I could only manage to understand some bit that sounded like French, so I was super lost during the actual story bit. Also got my ass kicked during the cooking portion. The visuals are super cool tho, with its surrealist vibe.
EDIT: it is now available in English!
The Restless by Double Zero Games, Konstantin Semionov, edtempler, Yue Liu, David Fitzgerald, Quantum Soup Studios, Anna Krauze, willbrycemusic
Note: the game file was not available, removed due to a bug. Seems unlikely it will come back before the end of the jam.
And finally…
/jk I’m not going to review my own game, that’d be cheating 
2 Likes
inkJam 2023 - final thoughts
Anyway, that’s it for the inkJam. Pretty interesting to see the different take on the theme, as some used it literally, others took a more abstract approach, or even used it as gameplay or mechanic.
Many listed their entries as prototype, which makes sense with the small time frame to make a game. But there were a good bunch with an insane amount of polish for just 3-days.
Also, the jam has been running yearly since 2018, gathering around 20 to 60 entries. So lots of small games there. And none of the jams have been recorded on the IFDB before now (I’ve only added the Interactive Fiction one this year). Now I’m kind of interested in playing the other editions…
So yeah, done with the inkJam!
Don’t forget to vote!
Next up...
EctoComp 2023 - French Edition
(there are only 3 for me to play )
1 Like
Meurtre dans la station spatiale par maximejr
4h Version - Long Version
It’s been submitted twice, I will play both version, but only do one review~
Summary: An investigation inside the international space station following the death of the cosmonaut Axionov.
LPM Version Thoughts: Intriguing sci-fi alternative-history premise, very French humour, not very spooky, but some bugs with choices and interactivity, and some issue with the interface and text formatting. Made the whole not super satisfying. The journal entries were the highlight of the game, imo.
LGG Version Thoughts: There’s a bit more content in this version (especially in the journals, and at the end with an extra puzzle), giving a bit more context and intrigue, and the interactive bugs and some interface issues were fixed. But this didn’t add much to the satisfaction or the spooky aspect. More interactivity with the other suspects (like interrogations) would have helped, I think.
1 Like
InGirum by Beny Danette
French - English
Note: this is a binksi game, submitted in both the English and French edition of the EctoComp. The voice narration is in French for both, but the caption is translated in English.
Summary: InGirum is an unfinished game. It’s a game in ruins, just like its creator.
Forenote: I played the French version first, which I recommend as the one to play if you can.
Thoughts: This is a bit of a game within a game, with commentary (real voice), with an interface of a computer, where you play the loaded game. You play snippets of games/demos in binksi (move around and interact with things), while the narrator explains the state of mind of the author and his motivations for creating the game. The interactivity sometimes is a bit obtuse (with the inclusion of a hidden maze, just walk around), but it does mirror the narrator’s commentary. Suspense is building throughout the game, culminating in a shocking twist. The interface is really good too, the glitching of the screen making things so uncomfortable.
This is an incredible and well rounded game, wow.
1 Like
In the Blink of…
Honestly, my French version is not as good as the English one. I took the 4h to translate the whole text (so much text…) and it does need some editing for sure.
French EctoComp - final thoughts
Fewer entries this year than last (but not shocking, as we are a smaller group than the Anglophone sphere, and the French Comp is like right around the corner), but pretty interesting take on horror and interactivity.
Hopefully, next year, there will be more entries~
Also from this point on, multiple entries have been submitted to both the EctoComp and the Bare-bones. I’ll indicate it, if that is the case, and will only review them once.
1 Like
Note: this was also submitted to the Bare-Bones Jam
Summary: Halloween night comes to a close and you’re just settling in to get a good night’s sleep when your son Lucas lets you know there are monsters in his room. Again. A father’s work is never done.
Thoughts: Heartbreaking but so well-written. There’s something not quite right from the beginning, things that don’t fit, building tension little by little, which makes the reveal not only depressing and the implications terrifying, but hitting even harder than you’d think. I need a hug now…
I had read the CW before playing but didn’t make the link until the end…
2 Likes
bitsiii 
Summary: I think about dynamics a lot.
Thoughts: More of a meta/philosophical musing about creative writing and an author’s relationship with its creations, the positives and negatives, the black the white. While there piece is very linear, I found the high-contrast backgrounds fitting quite well with the text on the screen. It didn’t feel super spooky, but then I’m also past that whole dread thing… 
1 Like
Note: this was also submitted to the Bare-Bones Jam
Summary: You’ve always been drawn to the lonely old house on the hill outside your town. It’s been abandoned for as long as you’ve lived here; you’ve never seen it get any care or attention. To everyone else, it’s just a part of the scenery. But to you it’s always been something more–a mystery, an omen, a promise.
Thoughts: My kind of parser! with just one command (x) ! The gameplay reminded me a bit of Nested as in you look at things, that gives out a detail you can look at, that gives you a detail you can look at… (except it doesn’t repeat ad infinitum). It felt a bit voyeuristic trying to look at details of this house, even if it’s abandoned. Pretty eerie, but neat!
+1 for including a walkthough! -1 for not being able to pet the dog (/jk)
2 Likes
Note: this was also submitted to the Bare-Bones Jam
Summary: It’s a bad idea, and it’s a movie! In this game there are three budding young rockstars called GUT who want to make a horror movie. Unfortunately, they don’t have very much money. But they will try anyway! They just need you, whoever you are, to settle a few disputes.
Thoughts: Not very spooky, unless you can’t forget about the background of the characters (which are not mentioned again), but humorous instead. It’s very silly and chaotic, but the games shines even more when replayed, as the different combinations of choices give some special flavour.
2 Likes
Summary: Everyone loves your chicken rice.
Thoughts: Short but effective in relaying feels (sadness and grief, but also joy and hope). The descriptions are powerful even with so little words. There’s a lot of unsaid between the lines, that makes it all the more tragic.
Last one for today, cause I played a bunch so far.
Will continue tomorrow.
In the meantime, I'm going to hunt some bugs :sob:
3 Likes
Summary: a hannibal inspired cookbook…of sorts
Thoughts: You know how cooking blogs have those insane recipe posts, where they talk about their whole life, and maybe parse the recipe throughout so it becomes impossible to get clear instructions? This feels like that but the story is eerie and uneasy and there is something wrong there (and the music!), but you’re not sure what (tho the game hints at it with wink wink nudge nudge jokes here and there). Still… I wouldn’t mind getting some Vietnamese now…
Small bémols: the animated background is pretty distracting (turned it of with the console), the text block is quite small (a bit annoying for the last passage), and the typing text speed is very slow (yay for pressing the SpaceBar*!)
*you might want to add this somewhere on the page
Note: this was also submitted to the Bare-Bones Jam
Summary: ConfigurationUploader is a program for uploading configurations.
Thoughts: Honestly thought at first Autumn had coded a new program and this was a legit bare documentation, but no, this is pure sci-fi fiction (I hope…). The whole gameplay feels like going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole (where you open the links on the page in a new tab to read later, because who knows if you’ll find them again) mixed with trying to understand an incomplete and obtuse documentation. The implication of the whole thing is quite frightening and bleak…
Kuddos for doing all this in 4h!
also wondering if this is part of the Archivist and the Revolution mythos?
3 Likes
Summary: Alone. Terrified. Locked in. Consumed by rage.
Forenote: I’ve dealt family members with dementia in the past. Among them, two have had the most impact: a grandparent who was caring for us kids when I was still quite young, whose physical health deteriorated with their mental one (I remember thinking we abandoned them in the care home during their last weeks, which was unfair because they were so kind to us kids), and my partner’s grandparent who passed fairly recently, but whose state was almost child-like at the end, and had turned extremely violent. So I went into this with some baggage already…
Thoughts: This was not a 5-15min game for me, mainly because I suck at parser and finding the correct command to advance. But while it is frustrating when playing most parsers, I think it helped me understand this game better. Like the PC, I felt like I didn’t have control over what I was doing (getting so many error messages), like I didn’t understand what I was supposed to do next, or couldn’t remember which word to use (also ooof the response of typing hint). You know you have a fork on the table but you can’t use the word fork in there, it’s a pointy thing that you stab other with. This confusion and frustration worked so well both in term of narratives but also gameplay.
I think it was pretty smart to use this point of view with this theme.
Amanda, you were impressed at how much there was in other LPM entries, but yours is as on par as the others!
Also, hugs 
Small thing I found
hit door in the room is neither accepted nor is given an error message. Seems like it was implemented but there’s no response when using it.
5 Likes
Summary: I wanted to make a small dungeon crawler. It became very simple and at the same time probably very unfair, difficult and hard to beat. But it is possible (with luck and cunning
Thoughts: Dungeon crawlers, my nemesis. The difficulty of this one is not understated, it’s hella hard and you need to be pretty lucky (maybe undo-scum?). I’ve just kept dying with not more then 40 gold pieces in my bag. It’s pretty humorous tho, and the cover image is pretty cool. But I think I’ll wait for someone to post a map with the enemies/items to pick up or the order do go at it before I go back to it.
Dying is fun… but with moderation
2 Likes
Note: This was also submitted to the Bare-Bones Jam
Summary: I hope he calls me back.
Thoughts: Subtle horror behind the rambling of an older woman through a voice message, complaining about everything and nothing around her, verging by end to paranoia (or just being full on paranoia). With some bits, I wondered if the woman was out of touch, and if her neighbours were that hateful, or about the reason why Mark left… I would honestly delete her message 
3 Likes
Summary: It’s Hallowe’en night and you’ve joined your three friends in the forest to tell scary stories around the campfire. But storytelling turns out to be more complicated than you expected!
Thoughts: Cute and short, with the Dee Cooketm graphics and vibes. as well as simple commands. Listen to some spoopy tales around the campfire. I think I’ve tried all possible actions… unless I missed something? It felt like there’s no real winning state. I’ll wait for the walkthrough to popup to know for sure
EDIT: Turns out there is, I just didn’t go back and change certain talking bits properly.
2 Likes
Summary: Three years ago, you were abducted by aliens and since, you’ve been subjected to a slew of experiments, always alone, the only human on the ship. But now, you’re going to be joined by a few others… with potentially deadly consequences.
Thoughts: Game Theory/Prisonner’s dilemma, ethics and morals. I managed to “save” everyone on my first play (maybe I’m too much of a goody-two-shoes). Felt a bit too verbose in the descriptions sometimes (especially since you can’t do much than follow the directives, nor does the background of the other prisoners come to play). Out of the 11 rounds, I was asked 2 questions (the two first rounds) and that was it… just wait and pass the plate.
Summary: It’s bonfire night, and they need a sacrifice.
Thoughts: Very cult vibes/survival. Bit of an obtuse parser (def not beginner friendly), managed to exit the first building (by chance!) and exit the field maze (by change again, only to find myself stuck again…). Would benefit from a mini-walkthrough, or hints for some puzzles, because I chose each action at random at the end…
EDIT: I ended up replaying the game and getting to the end! I do think that the it would help to have a bit more hints (like to get the bullet).
2 Likes